


our songs are ending (but don't cry)

by Phoenix_Allura (Artemis_Autumn_Marie)



Series: Nix's Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Escape Attempts, F/F, Gen, Hurt Harriet (Maze Runner), Hurt Minho (Maze Runner), Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Sonya (Maze Runner), Hurt Thomas (Maze Runner), Implied Stockhom Syndrome, Implied/Reference Torture, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kinda, M/M, Mentions of Beatings, Tasering, Tasers, Torture, Unhappy Ending, Vague, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, Wicked - Freeform, blood mentions, kind of but not really, mentions of torture, mentions of whipping, none of the torture is graphic but it's there, that's a new one for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Autumn_Marie/pseuds/Phoenix_Allura
Summary: Theme: Where do you think you're going?Prompt: Failed escapeThomas knows they can make it out.They just have to keep trying.Minho wants to leave.But the cost isn't worth what he'd gain.(he'd chose having thomas over escaping every time.)It means staying here, with WICKED, but Thomas and Harriet and Sonya are here.Thomas doesn't know why they don't want to leave anymore.So he'll leave himself.
Relationships: Harriet & Minho (Maze Runner), Harriet & Thomas (Maze Runner), Harriet/Sonya | Elizabeth "Lizzy" (Maze Runner), MInho & Sonya | Elizabeth "Lizzy" (Maze Runner), Minho/Thomas (Maze Runner), Sonya | Elizabeth "Lizzy" & Thomas (Maze Runner)
Series: Nix's Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947511
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	our songs are ending (but don't cry)

**Author's Note:**

> see end notes for more trigger warnings

“Who told you who could leave?” Paige’s voice was colder than Thomas was used to hearing it. 

“I just wanted to see everyone.” Since they’d been ‘captured’, Thomas hadn’t seen Minho, Sonya, or Harriet. It wasn’t as bad as right after the Scorch—they weren’t keeping in him total isolation—but it was still hard.

“No. Stay here.” Thomas sat back down as she walked out. If not for the cameras, he would have grinned. 

The power went out, in four isolated bursts.

One for his whole wing, two in non-life-support labs, and the last one in the main control room.

Thomas had done the hacking himself, on that one.

The cameras were dead. 

His door would be locked, but these vents had been designed for transporting things WICKED didn’t want seen.

And they had no cameras in the first place.

Thomas had unscrewed one side of the vent cover most of the way already; all he had to do was get up on his bed and get in.

He closed it up behind him.

Minho would be meeting him in the life-support labs; no one would be there. Harriet and Sonya were on guard duty; they’d insisted. 

It took only a few minutes; Thomas was back with Minho (for the first time in one month, two weeks, and three days).

Such a long time apart, and it only took a few minutes to meet up again.

If this were another world, Thomas might make a poem out of that.

But this wasn't another world. This was his world, and there wasn't time for a reunion here.

They needed to move, and move fast. The girls were in the hall; down at the far end. They'd meet up for a second then split, Thomas going with Harriet and Minho going with Sonya.

(One tall and one short per group. Minho had done it on purpose, and Thomas knew it.)

"Run, Minho, run!" Sonya screamed, nearby, as they stepped out of the lab.

They ran the opposite way, as quietly as they could.

What had gone wrong?

They'd had everything planned, done to the minute.

How had they been caught?

Thomas didn't want to leave Sonya and Harriet behind, but if they got out, they could get help, they would come back, and they would save them.

(but what if you're too late? a little voice in his head whispered. thomas ignored it.)

Thomas went right, Minho went left. It'd be harder to catch them if they were split up.

And they might have gotten Harriet, either. She was fast, and if they'd grabbed Sonya first, she might be running.

(she would never leave sonya behind. it was a futile hope that three of them would get out and return for a rescue.) 

Thomas ran the length of the building, ducking into corners and empty rooms when he thought a guard might see him and hoping they didn't lock.

But they grabbed him anyway, despite his precautions.

They grabbed him and shot him with their taser guns. It must have been a low setting, since it was nothing like before.

Like their first escape from WICKED.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ava Paige asked him again. "You don't get to leave, Thomas." She smacked him across the face. 

"Take him back. I think a little torture is in order. They must learn that they cannot leave."

"Why, why do you keep doing this?"

Thomas didn't want to give up hope that Minho was still out there, still running, so he didn't. He didn't give up hope.

He thought they would take him back to his cell.

Where they took him was so much worse.

Minho knew he couldn't stay in the vents for long; they'd find him eventually.

He'd watched as they dragged Harriet and Sonya away, taking them to Ava Paige.

She dismissed them, gave orders that they were to be locked in their rooms without food for a week.

"I can't say I'll allow Thomas to get off that easily. He's the leader here, clearly. Look at how everything was planned. And Minho will get two weeks' isolation, no food for one week, and a nice visit to the Griever room." No one questioned why she gave the girls such a lesser punishment.

Minho did.

They hadn't been struggling, not really. Not outside of when he'd heard Sonya yell.

"I must say, I'm quite disappointed. They must know that we know they're running and hiding from us, by now. They must know that. For running, running while knowing we're looking for them?" Ratman said. "I suggest a harsher punishment."

"No, Janson. They will be punished as I say. Now, go and find them."

Paige just sat there, in her chair, as though it was all fine.

Minho didn't risk staying longer.

He crawled as quickly as he could without making a ruckus. He'd try to find Thomas, but this place was big; he didn't think he would.

Finally dropping out of the vent, Minho found himself surrounded.

"Really, Minho, did you think it's that hard to track you in our vents?" 

Minho didn't know what he'd thought, but he was outnumbered and they had guns.

He let them take him back to his room. 

Minho didn't know why he'd been pulled out of isolation early.

That was until he saw Harriet in an adjacent room, staring at something (or something) looking like she was going to cry.

Had they hurt Sonya?

But no, Sonya was in the room on his other side.

They'd made the walls clear. They could see each other, but one motion, one mouthed word, and they'd be in hot water.

Where was Thomas?

Had they not caught him?

Minho felt a swell of pride in his chest; they hadn't caught him. They hadn't gotten Thomas.

Thomas knew where to go, who to contact—he'd be back, with more people, and they'd get out of here and burn the place down.

That was a short-lived hope.

The wall in front of Minho, once dark and opaque, was starting to lighten. 

He got the feeling that in a minute, he'd be looking at whatever had Harriet near tears and Sonya looking horrified.

(he really, really hoped it wasn't thomas. thought, for a minute, that if it were anyone else it would be better. that if someone coming to save them was behind that glass.

then he shook those thoughts away.

he didn't want any of them hurt.

they were his friends, his family.

the only people he knew and trusted in the entire world.)

The wall cleared completely, and Minho dropped to his knees.

Thomas had been tortured.

Clearly, he’d been beaten, blood still dripping from his chest, his back, his legs.

He’d been electrocuted, Minho thought, looking at the inflamed tissue that matched the scar on his own back, from the lightning.

Some of his fingernails were missing.

Minho was beginning to wish they’d never solved the Maze.

Anything else, anywhere else, would be better than this.

“This is what will happen, if you try and escape again. He will get hurt. You will get hurt. Listen, and all will be well.” Minho was yanked away from the glass, angry tears marking his face.

(they tried again, two months later.

thomas’s leg was broken, he was beaten bloody, and this time they made them listen.

minho would have given anything to take his place rather than hear his screams.)

Thomas wasn’t giving up. They could do what they wanted to him, but he was getting out.

It was too bad Minho, Sonya, and Harriet didn’t agree.

They wanted to stay.

Thought it was safer, better.

Thomas thought there was some type of mental illness relating to that.

So he convinced them.

Two weeks after his leg healed, they tried again.

Minho wanted to hate Thomas, for being convincing ~~(for being~~ ~~_ right _ ~~ ~~)~~.

Because this time they had to watch.

They ripped out his fingernails, broke his arms and a leg, beat him with belts and whips and their fists until his ribs snapped.

They tased him, over and over and over, until his body was covered in lightning scars.

This time, they each got whipped, too, but it had nothing on what they saw Thomas go through.

And somehow, Thomas was still convinced they could get out, when he was healed.

Minho wasn’t trying again.

They let them eat together, now.

Minho wasn’t going to watch his boyfriend die, not if he could help it.

Thomas tried on his own.

While injured.

They wouldn’t suspect it, they’d always, always gone as a group ( ~~there’s safety in numbers, i’ve got your back, you’re my best friend, thomas, i love you i love you i love you~~ ).

He got out.

He got out, and he ran-limped as fast and as far as he could.

(he went back, less than a month later. with jorge and brenda and gally and newt, all watching him with worried eyes.

they thought everyone else was dead.

he went with girls he barely knew, who just wanted their ~~leaders friends~~ _ sisters  _ back.

he went with himself, aching and hurting all the time, something inside him screaming and sobbing.

he went.

jorge and brenda and gally and newt,

they were right.

they’d killed sonya and harriet and minho just two days before they got there.

they killed them, too, when they arrived.

and, in his final moments, thomas was glad.

glad that finally, an escape attempt had worked.)

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warnings: Mentions of fingernails being pulled, blood mentions, death mentions
> 
> Hello hello!  
> I thought I wouldn't get this done, but here I am, at 11:43 pm on October 5th, and it's finished.  
> So, what did you think?  
> It was weird, not having any comfort at the end.  
> Come visit @mazegays and @nix-writes on tumblr!  
> As always,  
> Nix


End file.
